Has Adam Kokesh Been Robbed?

Shield Mutual Founder, George Donnelly, released an article on the company’s website today claiming to have dropped coverage for his once client, Adam Kokesh. Since George has essentially called me a terrorist, I wouldn’t normally encourage anyone to take him seriously. But say what you will about George Donnelly, he keeps good records, and the picture he paints looks very bad.

There are potentially tens of thousands of dollars missing from Adam’s business and personal accounts, including the legal defense fund, as well as an unknown and immeasurable amount of personal property being unaccounted for. I had expressed concerns about transparency from the AVTM team before I went down to Virginia to guest host the show with Derrick Broze, this past summer.

Unfortunately, my visit did not ease my concerns. For the former AVTM Team members who may be reading this, understand, I don’t necessarily have a problem with you, I just don’t know you that well. My friend is out tens of thousands of dollars, he’s in prison, he’s facing charges for drugs he says weren’t his, and everything being done is veiled in secrecy. So here’s my full and honest account of what I know, which frankly, isn’t much.

George’s article says I was given an “unknown amount of money”. Let it be known, that I went to Maryland to catch the Bradley Manning sentencing at the end of July, on my own dime, and while I was there I spent a few days at the AVTM house, guest hosting the show. Before returning to New York, Darrell Young asked me if I would like to return and do the show for a couple of weeks, and what it would cost for me to do that. I told him “travel expenses”, and he agreed. On August 10th, Darrell sent me $175 via PayPal, and I returned to Virginia shortly after. Later, Darrell also gave me $40 in Federal Reserve Notes for gas, while driving back and forth to Maryland to cover the Manning trial. I gained nothing monetarily from my Virginia visit, it was a costly thing for me in the end, and that’s okay with me because I didn’t go there to make money, I went there to help my friend and cover the Manning trial. Below is a screen shot of the PayPal transaction, the only alterations made were to crop for size, and to obscure email addresses to thwart spam.

While in Virginia, I saw and heard a number of things that concerned me.

Firstly, Darrell Young is an unapologetic gang member. He regularly refers to himself as “Crip”. He has never renounced his gang affiliations, he instead, brags about them. Last I checked, the Crips were not known for peacefully resolving conflicts or honest trade.

During a previous facebook conflict I had with Barbie Dunn, Darrell had touted his gang affiliations, and made threats of initiatory violence towards me and people on my side of the argument, over the internet. Darrell and I both put this conflict aside when I met Darrell in person following Adam’s arrest in Philadelphia.

While staying at the AVTM house, Darrell woke me up one morning saying “Brother Cantwell, time to commit those felonies”. At the time it seemed like humor, he asked me to come down to the basement and fill out a rental application for a new house for the team to stay in, and not with my own information. He gave me a different application, filled out by someone who Darrell claimed gave us permission to use his name, and asked me to copy the information over. I did so, because I did not mind acting as the agent of someone who had agreed to be party to the contract. Darrell then asked me to put myself as a reference for the applicant, and make up answers where the applicant had not filled out the other form. I told Darrell that I would not lie on a rental application, because this would be a contract violation, something I take very seriously.

He requested I do all this, not in the office, not in the kitchen, not upstairs, but in the AVTM Studio, in front of the cameras. I was originally seated behind the cameras, and he asked me to sit at the cohost desk in front of them to fill out there form. It made me very nervous.

Darrell also expresses sympathy for the Green Party on a regular basis. By itself, this might not be something to worry about, but while staying in a home that had recently been raided by federal agents, being around a philosophically incoherent gang member made me uncomfortable. When the stakes are that dire, I far prefer to surround myself with principled people who understand what it is they are fighting for. It’s hard to trust someone to be down for the cause, when they don’t even understand what the cause is.

Aside from all that, Darrell was fun to hang with and never did anything to wrong me personally.

There is a video out, of a meeting with the AVTM team following the raid, where Edd Skitz makes a credible threat of initiatory violence against Lucas Jewell. While I don’t care that Edd carries his gun all the time, (so do I when it’s legal) I do care about violations of the NAP, which the threat clearly was. I also care that he’s generally a hothead with a habit of yelling at his girlfriend and others, and striking inanimate objects that he becomes frustrated with. Granted, this can be fun to watch sometimes, and as I said about Darrell, Edd was fun to hang with and never did anything wrong to me personally. But again, living in a house where the door hadn’t even been completely repaired from a federal raid, being around people who were not NAP adherents made me uncomfortable.

Liz does not claim to be an NAP adherent, but did a fine job of adhering to it the best I could tell during my stay. However, there’s discussion of missing money, so it’s probably worth pointing out, that Liz claimed to be responsible for fundraising.

I don’t think I’m exactly making headlines by pointing out that the entire AVTM team are potheads. Now fine, that’s a pretty well accepted thing in this community, but it’s important to remember that I don’t smoke weed, and Virginia is a place that still takes marijuana seriously, especially if you have guns. Being in a house that is still damaged from a federal raid, where they claim drugs were planted, but smoking weed all day, even on live streaming video, while carrying guns, is stupid, at best. It’s also concerning because for people who were crying poverty, there sure was plenty of high end weed being smoked all day and all night.

The entire team expressed concern about Lucas Jewell’s girlfriend, who goes by Ciaran Being on facebook. I was asked to keep these concerns to myself because they were trying to get the facebook page back from Lucas. They suspect she might be a government agent, and I share these concerns.

Update 10:38am EST 9/26

She has commented on this blog as Elisabeth [email protected] from 72.74.143.205 (Apparently now back in Boston) Making thinly veiled legal threats against me. Surely, no government agent would make legal threats against the person who outed them, right? It’s also worth noting that I contacted Elisabeth while I was still in VA, giving her the opportunity to clear her name. Her only response was “I am not a government agent”.

The woman in question showed up outside the Federal Court in Philadelphia during one of Adam’s court dates. Nobody I’ve spoken to has ever seen her before this day. She claims to be a successful attorney in her 40’s, who lives in Boston. She approached me, offering to help with the Rich Paul appeal. I took her contact information, and passed it along to the defense fund organizer. After finding out about the suspicions, I broke confidence to warn them about her, check if they had used her services, and they had not.

She later wound up in a sexual relationship with Lucas. A 22 year old kid who went from High School, to military, to AVTM without ever holding any other job. Why does a 40 something attorney from Boston, show up out of nowhere in Philadelphia, then start spending all her time in Virginia with a 22 year old who has accomplished nothing?

If this woman is a government agent, everybody should be concerned, because that means our conflict with the State is on a whole new level. The FBI doesn’t send prostitutes in to seduce the people it investigates for crimes, that’s what spies do to people they are at war with, and it lends credibility to the story of the drugs having been planted in the house. If the CIA is sending women to seduce us, to pretend to be our defense attorneys, and plant drugs in our homes, then the gloves are off folks. You can’t fight that with petitions and ballots.

As I was leaving Virginia, I visited Adam in jail in DC. I expressed to him my concerns about his team. I asked him if he thought they could be trusted. He assured me that they could be trusted to act honestly, even if not competently. When I told him that Darrell had paid for my expenses, he told me that Darrell should have run that passed him, and had not done so. He also was concerned that Darrell was filling out a rental application, when Darrell had not finalized a rental with him. Yet he still said he trusted them. So I wished him well, and drove back to New Hampshire.

This is the extent of my knowledge and involvement with the AVTM team.

Going forward I prefer to maintain good relationships with all involved, but maintain a certain level of distance until it is clarified what happened to Adam’s property.

Chris a think you’re a total ass hole and a loon at times but this article is pretty spot on… don’t smoke weed that costs $20/gram and beg for peoples money like you can’t feed yourself…. also I agree that you shouldn’t be on any mind altering substance whole putting yourself in a position to do something as serious as administering deadly force… edd is a fucking loose cannon and I’m glad you were honest about that… thanks for your honesty on the violation of the contracts and NAP… I can assure you with relative certainty that the woman I was with was not an agent and this will be proven in time… the people who called her an agent have not an ounce of credibility so I’m not worried about them and their paranoia… while I disagree with the drug laws Adam wouldn’t be the first person to claim drugs were planted and for his sake that’s where I’ll stop myself on that subject… I’m blocked by you on facebook and if you want to unblock me and friend request me I’d gladly accept… ohh yea and about George. .. the dude is trying to run an honest business and is doing just that… with everything that has been said about he, the female, and I just consider the source

You’re also inaccurate about my personal timeline from high school to now but it’s really irrelevant

BannedByCantwellFB

I, like Lucas, am also banned on your FB page, but I wanted to say that this was a well-written good read. You are a good writer, even though I disagree with much of what you write.

Anywho, speaking of writing, have you done any screenwriting? The drama in this AVTM saga is dripping and begging for it. You couldn’t make this shit up, and the characters are already developed. You could make a Cameo.

When the initial hoopla came out and Lucas left the AVTM team, I assumed that he had done something seriously wrong, but the more that information has been coming out the more I think those initial thoughts I had are completely wrong. Liz seems misguided, while Edd and Darrell seem like terrible people. I became suspicious that Darell wasn’t down with the cause after he started openly attacking a law passed in Texas that would give more freedom to public school teachers to discuss faith and religion. It still didn’t allow endorsement but at the very least it allowed teachers to say Merry Christmas without getting in trouble. Darrell had a problem with that. He seemed to think that everybody else needed to shut up about their beliefs and shouldn’t legally be allowed to express them just because he’s an atheist. I shut off the podcast and remember thinking “Holy Shit. A member of AVTM is a bigger statist than Rick Perry.”

Well-written, Chris. I just watched the clip that Donnelly posted of Edd’s threat against Lucas. Edd’s a hothead asshole, and Liz provoked Lucas into jumping up to defend himself. She comes off as a world-class irritant. Given your testimony of Darrell’s suspicious behavior, they all come off as supremely untrustworthy. What the hell did Kokesh see in any of them?

Chris

He put together a team of people who would work for next to nothing, and who, under his supervision, managed to keep the operation together. Without Adam there to lead them, things went bad.

I admire Adam a lot but he has this Achilles heel of being way too reckless. If you’re going to be a highly vocal anarchist who talks about the need for a new American revolution, anticipate the fact that the feds are going to try to infiltrate any organization you’re involved in and take some commonsense steps to prevent their ability to do any real damage.

If someone doesn’t have plenty of reliable personal and professional references and a track sheet of activism going back several years, don’t trust them with company funds or highly important job positions. Keep impeccable financial statements. Ensure that if you’re imprisoned, a family member or someone you would trust with your life knows what steps to take, what things need to be taken care of.

well to who’ever stole Adam’s money your character is the reason the MAN, is winning. as your friend is down you pick his pocket and take his shoes while the system hammers away at his freedom. your character is the reason the NAP true anarchy or any system you once idolized can never be possible.the government does not need divide us with character such as this you are doing the job for them for that is your nature.when the police state is at your door raping your soul remember this. that you once had the chance to change the tied yet you foiled it for federal reserve notes

Klapton

“She later wound up in a sexual relationship with Lucas. A 22 year old kid who went from High School, to military, to AVTM without ever holding any other job. Why does a 40 something attorney from Boston, show up out of nowhere in Philadelphia, then start spending all her time in Virginia with a 22 year old who has accomplished nothing?”

Maybe he’s got a big cock? Maybe she is in her sexual prime and so is he? Heck, maybe they are soul mates, are truly in love, and nothing else matters?

A note for all you young guys out there… You haven’t lived until you made love to a woman over 40. Seriously. Young women are awful nice to look at, but a mature woman will blow your mind.

Elisabeth Kelly

Thank you Klapton. Your is closer to the truth than Mr. Cantwell’s baseless speculations and salacious allegations.

Mr. Cantwell should note that defamation may be a criminal or civil charge. It encompasses both written statements, known as libel, and spoken statements, called slander.

Chris

Surely, no government agent would make legal threats against someone who outed them…

Elisabeth C. Kelly

Mr. Cantwell you sent me one facebook message at 130am in August asking me to immmediatley go on video.
You did not then nor have you yet provided any factual basis for your allegation I am employed by the CIA or other entity nor did you address cobcerns to my face in May nor did you contact after rge fb mesaage up to your article release And yes I will deny what is not true.

Nor am I of you Mr. Cantwell.
& you never bothered to suggest a alternate time or face to face meeting nor did you contact me prior to the late night internet/twitter release of your article. Again you still have provided no facts to base your allegations on.

Sidebar here, for which I apologize… but are you hot? Not to toot my own horn, but I’m a fairly well-accomplished, well-traveled, incredibly talented, marginally handsome man, and have a HUGE… I mean an ENORMOUS… intellect. Get at me, girlie…

Richard Dyott

Man that is so fucked up. I feel so bad for Adam. He seems like a very honest person. Time for him to regroup and only trust family and close friends he has known a while.

The Pothead Zombie Army strikes again! Potheads have notoriously poor sense of judgement (as well as paranoia, apathy and general flakiness). Why would you get involved with any organisation where its members were so unprofessional that they say around smoking pot all day?

‘I don’t think I’m exactly making headlines by pointing out that the entire AVTM team are potheads. Now fine, that’s a pretty well accepted thing in this community, but it’s important to remember that I don’t smoke weed, and Virginia is a place that still takes marijuana seriously, especially if you have guns. Being in a house that is still damaged from a federal raid, where they claim drugs were planted, but smoking weed all day, even on live streaming video, while carrying guns, is stupid, at best. It’s also concerning because for people who were crying poverty, there sure was plenty of high end weed being smoked all day and all night.’

Cannabis is quite harmless, sir. Question: if you consider cannabis to be so bad, I wonder how you feel about something like meth or crack.

Chris

My preference is powder cocaine, intravenously.

Marcus Aurelius

If you do anything all day, whether drinking, eating, or what have you, it’s not good for you. It’s fine if someone wants to smoke every night even, but when you start your day out with it the flakiness ensues.

Nick

I’m going to leave a comment, despite my better judgement. But I believe that for those of us “fans” and fellow supporters I think that these things need to be said.

Do I as a supporter believe that Adam was set up? Absolutely. If I have learned anything from Adam is that disobedience has a cause and effect. Adam has been putting himself in positions of uncertainty for quite a few months before his incident in D.C., of which I supported.

Did I as a supporter give my hard earned money to AVTM? Yes I did. I believe in putting your money where your mouth is if your mouth can’t be present. I’m a new homer, graphic artist, with a fiance’ that was recently diagnosed with epilepsy, and have a little girl that we are trying our best to raise. I am not a doctor with an anarchist streak that rides his Harley on the weekends. My money is thin most of the time but I found on several occasions the little extra to give to the AVTM team because I believe in what Adam was doing.

I got a really big pit in my stomach feeling when I started seeing rumors of Adam’s twitter or facebook accounts being stolen not 10 minutes after donating yet again to his legal defense fund.

Thanks to what I believe, as a long time supporter of Adam Kokesh, of shady business practices, leaching staff, and a general recklessness on Adam’s behalf since he has been in prison, I will no longer be giving any of those hard earned dollars to the AVTM team.

I donated money to help Adam see the damn sun again as a free human being not to pay for pot and other indulgences that his “team” deemed as necessity to keep a simple podcast going.

Say what you want about “sunshine patriots” or whatever, but after seeing this type of abuse of funds in Adam’s name, I’m absolutely done with it.

Tammy

I believe it is time for others with far better resources to join Adam’s team of supporters. Do we expect this man to fight for our freedoms and then just be stuck away in a cell? I will not ever forget what Adam has done and he remains an inspiration to those of us who know there is a better way.

Chris, thank you for passing along this vital information. Even if the worst of this is true, the power you wield with the truth you speak and the audience you have gives me hope.

macebobo

You lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. This is it for me. You have all ruined any of the remaining credibility Adam had with much of the public, including myself. Such a sad state the there is this type of in-fighting within this movement. We’re fucked.

Your article was overly loquacious. The information is too important to bury within unnecessary non-sequiturs. Get to the point quicker; fewer paragraphs. That being said, I hope this gets cleared up and Adam surrounds himself with more loyal and trustworthy compatriots.

mel j montana

spies, moles, traitors, agents, scammers, from a show that used to be funded by VLAD “THE IMPALER” PUTIN? NO WAY! YOU DON’T SAY!

Michael LeCompte

What a shame if these allegations of fraud are true. Adam had a lot of balls to peacefully defy the DC gang. I suspect government infiltration in the AVTM team with all these new details coming out. This situation sucks.

As a fan of Adam this is sad. However, Adam regularly advertised working for his podcast in exchange for experience and living at his house with no monetary compensation. Did Young, Del Cano and Yealey receive any regular payments for their work or just the free rent and experience?

If you have a bunch of unpaid interns not even getting a few hundred dollars:

1) You’re creating a situation that likely results in them needing to be on government welfare programs and therefore counters the message of emancipating from government

2) You’re not likely attracting the most competent help. What skilled person is going to work for no monetary compensation?

3) As with all capitalism, you’re pitting people against each other to survive by any means necessary

Hopefully Adam can rebound and make a comeback once his legal issues are resolved.

The ONLY person responsible for this entire situation is Kokesh. He continues to support some of these same baloon-heads to this day.
Now, he’s going to plead guilty to the charges he’s currently locked up for?… Way to stand up for the cause bro-
I wouldn’t give him or ATVM a dime. I reserve my protests, funds, support and associations to those people who are worth them.

-To be clear, when you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. (heh, sorry elizabeth)